MJ's Business IT Blog

A Powerful Wrap Up To A Powerful Conference

Today was the final day of the CompTIA Breakaway conference.  My mind is tired from the wealth of education and networking over the past four days.  I have learned a ton and spent quality time with friends and colleagues, some old, some new.  I am coming away particularly impressed with technology from itControlSuite andXerox, to name just two.  It's actually an interesting contrast in our industry.  itControlSuite is a relatively new player, small and nimble and building technology based on their own experience in the IT service delivery business.  Xerox, a mainstay in the industry, is offering an innovative approach to the traditional printer market.

Those are just two examples of the over 125 vendors who were present at the conference to educate us on their latest developments.  The business education was robust, with sessions ranging from business planning to the "greening" of the IT infrastructure.

I also had the pleasure of sitting on a panel discussion covering the evolution of managed services, along with colleagues from Secure My Company, Techlinq, OnForce, DirectPointe and itControlSuite.  Our moderator, Chris Gonsalves from eWeek Channel Insider guided us through a great discussion covering a wide range of topics with excellent engagement from those in attendance.  Despite the rude interruption of a false fire alarm, we managed to have a lot of fun and exchange some great insights.

Following the panel session, we were treated to a very inspirational talk by Dr. Beck Weathers, survivor of the 1996 Mount Everest tragedy where 8 people perished.  He gave a riveting recap of the events of the tragedy, including emotional recollections of some of the people who lost their lives that day, and some selfless acts of humanity and heroism.  Dr. Weathers story is one of clear focus on what was important to him and the drive it gave him to survive or die trying, rather than give in to the incredible forces working against him.  To over simplify his message, it was the clear and distinct image of his family that saw him through.  His message, overly simplified in this brief recount, is one of valuing what's important to you and focusing your life to insure that you are true to that.  I couldn't agree more.  While I love the business I am in, I love my family more and they are my motivation for everything that I do, every day.  It's a simple, yet often undervalued message.  If you ever have the opportunity to see Dr. Weathers speak, I highly recommend you take it.

And with that, another excellent conference wraps up and it's time to head home and see my family...always the highlight of any business trip!

Blogging from Breakaway

CompTIA's annual Breakaway conference got under way today.  The opening session has been a mix of business, announcements and inspiration with an interesting keynote by Chris Trimble, author of the 10 Rules for Strategic Innovators, pictured here.

We heard about the Association's accomplishments over the last year and opportunities for the coming  year.  We were also introduced to Todd Thibodeaux, the incoming President and CEO of CompTIA, who assumes the reigns on September 1st.  Todd shared his vision for the IT industry and our membership.  It will be exciting to see the impact of Todd 's expertise on CompTIA.

We were also treated to an inspirational presentation by Jeanine Lilly, a recipient of a training grant from Creating Futures, an outreach program of CompTIA's Educational Foundation.  Jeanine became disabled as a result of an accident and the Creating Futures grant enabled her to go from "feeling worthless to feeling worthwhile", to quote her words.  Her courages story and infectious spirit earned a well deserved standing ovation.

This event is always the best industry conference I attend each year.  The next few days will be exhausting, but also of immeasurable value to Jenaly and our clients.

I Have Control Of My E-mail

I finally did it.  I got my e-mail inbox completely cleaned up and empty.  I spent hours tonight reviewing over 1,000 e-mail messages that had accumulated in my inbox over the last few months.  Fortunately, found less than half a dozen messages that I needed to respond to that I hadn't.  Hopefully, those people won't be completely ticked off at me for not getting back to them in a more timely manner.

Most importantly, I properly filed all the various pieces of information I had been storing in my inbox in their appropriate places.  That allowed me to delete the e-mail messages I had been saving in my inbox.  Let's face it, the inbox is not a good file cabinet, yet most people use it as one.  It really shouldn't be.  I know it causes me unnecessary stress when my inbox is overloaded with mail.  I'm always concerned I am not getting back to someone who is waiting to hear from me, or missing some important information that may help my business, family or life in general.

I recently finished reading David Allen's book Getting Things Done and am currently reading his second book Ready for Anything.  I've read a lot of personal productivity and time management books over the years, but I really like David Allen's material.  Mostly because I'm finding I am actually able to implement some of his suggesstions.  I've been getting better at touching things only once, filing things for future reference and dealing with anything I can complete in 2 minutes or less.  If I can't do that, I am able to setup follow-up actions with the comfort of knowing that I will see it and get it done.  I've also been using the Getting Things Done Outlook Add-In.  As I spend a tremendous amount of time using Microsoft Outlook on my notebook and on my Treo, having software within Outlook that helps me be more efficient is a great advantage.

I feel so good having an empty inbox.  I'm excited to see how successful I will be at keeping it this way and if it will really help me be more productive.  I'm certain that it will.  I'll let you know how I'm doing in a few weeks.  Wish me luck and join me in the quest to keep an empty inbox.

Our Extreme Future

I am currently attending CompTIA's annual membership conference, Breakaway, in Las Vegas.

Today's keynote was presented by Dr. James Canton, author of The Extreme Future, which I have written about previously. I have also listed the book in the Recommended Reads list on this site.

I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Canton prior to his presentation. He graciously autographed my book. More importantly, Dr. Canton is a down to earth, fascinating man and an excellent speaker.

His talk mirrored his book in many ways, with an obvious focus on the impact of IT on our future. After all, this is an IT conference. He contends that neuro, nano, bio and IT are the four key areas of our future. The convergence of these four areas will determine our Extreme Future.

A Worrisome Development?

Each morning at the gym, while on an elliptical, I read a book.  I'm currently reading The Extreme Future by Dr. James Canton.  I will have the opportunity to meet Dr. Canton at CompTIA's annual membership conference, Breakaway, in two weeks, so I'm aggressively reading through to the end.

This morning, I was reading a section that was talking about future medical trends.  The gist of this chapter revolves around the stem cell opportunity that this country is actively missing out on.  Politics aside, the author writes that because this Administration has refused to fund stem cell research, much of the money and a frightening amount of the brain power in this country is moving to Europe and Asia.  The one notable exception to this is a California law that supports and allows stem cell research.  The author contends that the US economy, influence and national security are likely to suffer if we don't correct this course.  It's too complex to cover in a short post like this, but if you have any interest in this topic or concern for our national health, both physical and in the world, I encourage you to get and read this book.

Being a political science major that focused on national security issues at the time, what concerns me most is that the rationale behind the Administrations stem cell arguments don't seem that far off, ideologically, from the very extremist ideologies we fear most and are actively combating.  It concern me that this irony is not more widely discussed in our country.

What does any of this have to do with IT?  At one level nothing, at another everything.  You should read the book to see how this issue and IT interrelate.  It's a fascinating read.